Shadow Slave

Sunny looked at the runes. Their eerie glow was swiftly growing brighter and brighter, drowning the chamber in a ghostly light. Slowly, a deep frown appeared on his face.

Then, suddenly, his eyes widened.

"Crap!"

But it was already too late. The runes shimmered, and in the next moment, he felt his reserve of shadow essence plunging. It was as though something was draining the essence out of his soul with terrifying speed.

At the same time, the range of shadow essence diminished even further, becoming limited by the size of the cage. The gloomy shadow recoiled, trying to get away from the shining runes.

Sunny hurriedly tried to summon the Cruel Sight, but he was a second too slow. Before the spear could form itself from the sparks of light, his essence ran dry, and it disintegrated before assuming a physical form.

"...Damnation!"

He looked helplessly at the bars of the cage and clenched his fists.

This was indeed a jail cell built to contain Awakened. Without shadow essence, he wouldn't be able to use Shadow Step to escape. More than that, he couldn't summon Memories anymore — manifesting them into reality demanded essence, as well, even if it was a tiny amount.

The same went for Echoes… and even Shadows.

He also felt weak, and was only going to grow weaker in the coming hours — without essence circulating through his body, Sunny's strength was vastly diminished.

...Whoever created this damned cage really knew what they were doing.

With a resentful snarl, Sunny turned around and allowed himself to slide down to the center of the dome, where Cassie stood with a lost expression on her pale, delicate face.

Raising one hand awkwardly, she tentatively moved it through the air around her and whispered:

"...I am blind again."

Sunny frowned, stared at her for a moment, and then turned away.

"You were always blind."

Of course, he knew what Cassie meant — without soul essence, the Aspect Ability that allowed her to perceive the world from several seconds in the future was gone, too. It wasn't exactly sight, but something that had replaced being able to see to her.

but Sunny

locked in a cage, powerless to escape… that was his worst

himself to blame for ending

from the blind girl, Sunny sat down, lowered his head, and grabbed

'Curse him…'

the cathedral shook

a while, then

have been the Gateway. They… they

Sunny closed his eyes.

guess you

her sitting down opposite him and wondered about the black altar that was now laying somewhere in the depths of the Citadel in pieces.

begin with? Or was it just a lie

else had

teeth, suppressing a groan. He

been so helpful, and had provided him with so much valuable information that proved to be true. Sunny was, most likely, only alive because of

been the smallest hint that Mordret wanted something from him, he would have suspected the worst. But the bastard was just too devious and

had played him like

that any pressure would scare his paranoid mark off, Mordret had simply mentioned

waiting for his prey to come to him

Sunny shuddered.

much

a need for Mordret to wait days between their conversations. All of it was just a part of an intricate web of

am

himself to be fooled

Sunny's face,

Truth… his downfall was the truth! Like a masterful liar, Mordret had mixed just enough of it into his lies to make them

"Oh, the irony..."

and asked, her voice

exactly happened back

chuckle and

you

didn't answer, and after some more time passed,